The present invention relates to vehicle wheels and particularly to a composite wheel including a metal wheel with a polymeric decorative cladding.
Ornamental metal-plated polymeric claddings have been employed for providing a decorative surface to the outer exposed surface of wheels for several years. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,564,791, 5,577,809, 5,597,213, 5,630,654, 5,636,906, 5,845,973 and 6,082,829, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, represent different approaches for providing and attaching such claddings to existing wheels to provide a finished decorative appearing wheel.
Existing methods of attaching cladding to the underlying metal wheel include the use of an adhesive between the wheel and cladding in localized areas. During curing of such adhesive, the wheel cladding is temporarily held to the wheel using secondary cure caps clamping the cladding to the wheel for a period of time up to 24 hours. For such purpose, the curing cap extends through the center hub aperture of the wheel and has a plurality of outwardly projecting tabs which snap-fit around the center hub of the wheel on the inner side such that the cladding is held in place during the curing of the adhesive. The insertion and removal of the curing caps to thousands of wheels adds additional costly manufacturing steps in addition to the cost of the caps themselves and their tooling expense.
Exposed nut wheels present a further problem in that the cladding must extend into the central hub region and around the openings for the lug nuts. Until the present invention, there has been no attempted solution to the different problems presented when adhesively bonding a cladding to an exposed lug nut wheel. There exists, therefore, a need for a wheel and cladding system in which a decorative cladding can be employed in connection with exposed lug nut wheels. There also exists a need to reduce some of the wheel weight and provide for an economical method of holding the cladding on the wheel during adhesive curing without the use of a secondary cure cap or the expensive machining of undercuts into the lug wells.
The present invention solves these problems and fulfills these needs by providing a wheel and a cladding and the combination thereof. The cladding has an outer decorative surface and an inner surface which faces a wheel to be covered. The cladding includes a plurality of openings for receiving wheel mounting lugs. Spaced from the center of the hub and from said lug openings are a plurality of spaced snap-locking tabs extending from the inner facing surface of said cladding toward the wheel to which the cladding is to be mounted. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the wheel to be clad includes a generally circular relief cut extending around the central hub in spaced relationship thereto and aligned with said spaced tabs of said cladding to snap-receive the cladding and hold it in place while a thin film adhesive applied to the wheel and/or cladding is cured to permanently bond the decorative cladding to the wheel. With such structure, the wheel itself, which can be made of magnesium, aluminum or other material, can be manufactured with a reduced amount of material in the hub area between the lugs, therefore, producing weight savings. The aperture of the central hub accommodates the service cone used in tire mounting stores during balancing and requires a smaller cap for the hub.
During manufacturing of a composite wheel and cladding, the need for a temporary cure cap is eliminated as are the concomitant handling costs and tooling for multiple configuration of cure caps. Also, it is generally unnecessary to remove rack tabs typically employed for holding the cladding during the plating process. These features result in a less expensive, lighter weight wheel while still maintaining the necessary strength requirements.
These and other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description thereof together with reference to the accompanying drawings.